Lift door

ABSTRACT

Lift door comprising an upper half and a lower half coupled for simultaneous, opposed, vertical sliding movement on one side only, the other side of said door halves being restrained in a direction normal to the door only.

United States Patent 1 Rompa [451 Sept. 18, 1973 LIFT DOOR [76]Inventor: Jozef Johannes Theresia Rompa, 14,

Bredaseweg, Terheyden, Netherlands [22] Filed: Dec. 27, 1971 [2]] Appl.No.: 212,068

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 29, 1970 Netherlands 7018980521 user .L ..49/120',49/70,49/121 51 Int.C1. ..E05c 7/06,E05f17/00 58Field ofSearch ..49/l2l,l20,ll6,

3,089,203 5/1963 Roselius 1. 49/409 3,479,498 1 H1969 Lasseigne... 240/2R 630,461 8/1899 Lloyd 49/119 1,544,751 7/1925 Haynes et a1.. 49/1 18 X2,989,303 6/1961 Mercier 49/122 X 3,240,926 3/1966 Hajnik.... 240/2 RPrimary Examiner-Mervin Stein Assistant Examiner-Philip C. KannanAttorney-Alan H. Levine et a1.

[57] ABSTRACT Lift door comprising an upper half and a lower halfcoupled for simultaneous, opposed, vertical sliding movement on one sideonly, the other side of said door halves being restrained in a directionnormal to the door only.

3 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PAIENIED SEP 1 a ma sum a nr 3 IIIIHMIIIHINVENTOR: .TozeF IT Romp/1 BY Qg 52/ ATTORNEY PATENTEU I 73 SHEET 3 0FLIFT noon BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a liftor elevator door comprising an upper half and a lower half coupled forsimultaneous, opposed, vertical sliding movement. For horizontallysliding doors it is customary to provide operating and guiding meansalong the upper edge of the door only, whereas the lower edge of thedoor is free to move, but for vertically sliding door halves one hasalways used operating and guiding means at both lateral sides of thedoor in view of the fact that the gravity forces cause a couple on theoperating and guiding means.

According to the invention a lift door comprises an upper half and alower half coupled for simultaneous, opposed, vertical sliding movementon one side only, the other side of said door half being restrained in adirection normal to the door only.

My invention is based on the idea that the couples exerted by gravity onthe means for guiding the vertical sliding movement at one side of thedoor halves can be absorbed by known types of guiding means without anyspecial precaution, so that an operating and guiding means at the secondside of the door halves is superfluous. The invention provides aconsiderable saving of installing cost of the lift doors while iteliminates moreover the difficulty of exactly synchronising theoperating means at both sides of the known lift door constructions.

According to a further feature of my invention, a permanent illuminationis provided behind the upper and- /or lower edge of the door openingsuch that the lift car will be illuminated after the door halves havebeen opened.

SUMMARY OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of anautomatically operated lift door according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal section of a lift door according to theinvention.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are schematic views of the illumination with closed andopened doors respectively.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The lift door according to theinvention comprises an upper half 1 and a lower half 2, mounted aboveeach other in the shaft of a lift and attached at their left side onlyto a vertical straight line bearing 3. The bearing 3 comprises avertical bar 4, connected to the door half and having a longitudinalgroove 5, 6 at both side edges, which bar can slide in a channel sectionmember 7 mounted in vertical position along one side of the door halvesonly. The channel section member 7has corresponding longitudinal groovesin both flanges directly opposite the grooves 5, 6 so that the pair ofgrooves and 8 and the pair of grooves 6 and 9 respectively together formraceways for a straight line of balls 10 or 11 respectively. Thus, thedoor halves l and 2 are positively guided at one side only for verticalsliding movement in the channel section member 7 by a straight linehearing which allows movement in vertical direction only. The other sideedge of each door half I, 2 supports two freelyrotatable wheels 12guided in a channel section member 13, mounted in vertical position inthe lift shaft.

The door halves l and 2 are operated by a pneumatic cylinder 14 mountedvertically to the channel section member 7 of the straight line bearing.The piston rod [5 of the cylinder 14 is directly connected to the upperdoor half 1 by a transverse member 16, whereas a cable 17 is attached tothe member 16 and guided over a sheave l8 rotatably mounted at a certaindistance above the upper door half 1, the other end of the cable beingattached to a laterally extending part of the lower door half 2. Thus,when the cylinder 14 is pressurized such that the rod 15 moves upwards,the upper door half 1 is pushed upwards and the lower door half 2descends by gravity over the same amount, whereas the door halves l and2 are moved towards each other by pressurizing the cylinder 14 in theopposite sense. Preferably, the pressure lines to the cylinder 14 areconnected to an automatic control which increases the air pressure afterthe door 1, 2 is closed, so that it is not possible to separate the doorhavles l and 2 manually. Preferably the door halves have a smooth frontwhich does not provide a grip for the hands so that forced manualopening is prevented.

It should be understood, however, that the unilateral guiding of thedoors according to the invention can also be used for manually operateddoors.

According to FIGS. 3 and 4 a fluorescent tube lamp 21 is mounted withina transparent horizontal casing 20 mounted behind the upper edge of thedoor opening. The position of the lamp 21 is so chosen with respect tothe lower and upper edges of the door half 1 in opened and closedposition respectively that in open position of the door, the interior ofthe lift car 22 (which is then behind the door opening) is illuminatedwhereas in closed position of the door half 1 the lamp 20 illuminatesthe closed door opening and also the interior of the shaft, which may beuseful for maintenance work.

What I claim is:

1. An elevator door arrangement comprising:

a. an upper door half and a lower door half arranged in the samevertical plane and movable vertically toward and away from each other,

b. means connected to one vertical side of each of said door halvescoupling said door halves together and for producing vertical movementof said door halves,

0. guide means along the same vertical side of each of said door halvesfor permitting vertical sliding movement thereof but for restrainingsaid door halves against both movement in a direction normal to theplane of the door and rotation of the door halves in the plane of thedoor, and

d. guide means along the opposite vertical side of each of said doorhalves for restraining said door halves only against movement in adirection normal to the plane of the door but not against rotation ofthe door halves in the plane of the door.

2. An elevator door arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein said guidemeans (c) includes a stationary vertical channel-section member withrespect to which said door halves move, and a vertical bar attached tosaid one vertical side of each door half, said bar being slidable withinsaid channel-section member, the sides of said bars and the flanges ofsaid channel-section member being formed with opposed longitudinalgrooves defining raceways between them, and straight rows of balls beinglocated within said raceways.

a plurality of wheels carried by said door halves and freely rotatablebetween the flanges of said channelsection member.

1. An elevator door arrangement comprising: a. an upper door half and alower door half arranged in the same vertical plane and movablevertically toward and away from each other, b. means connected to onevertical side of each of said door halves coupling said door halvestogether and for producing vertical movement of said door halves, c.guide means along the same vertical side of each of said door halves forpermitting vertical sliding movement thereof but for restraining saiddoor halves against both movement in a direction normal to the plane ofthe door and rotation of the door halves in the plane of the door, andd. guide means along the opposite vertical side of each of said doorhalves for restraining said door halves only against movement in adirection normal to the plane of the door but not against rotation ofthe door halves in the plane of the door.
 2. An elevator doorarrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein said guide means (c) includesa stationary vertical channel-section member with respect to which saiddoor halves move, and a vertical bar attached to said one vertical sideof each door half, said bar being slidable within said channel-sectionmember, the sides of said bars and the flanges of said channel-sectionmember being formed with opposed longitudinal grooves defining racewaysbetween them, and straight rows of balls being located within saidraceways.
 3. An elevator door arrangement as defined in claim 1 whereinsaid guide means (d) includes a stationary vertical channel-sectionmember stationary with respect to which said door halves move, theopening of said channel section facing said guide means (c), and aplurality of wheels carried by said door halves and freely rotatablebetween the flanges of said channel-section member.